The market for personal portable electronic devices, for example, cell phones, laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), digital cameras, and music playback devices (MP3), is very competitive. Manufacturers, distributors, service providers, and third party providers have all attempted to find features that appeal to the consumer. Manufacturers are constantly improving their product with each model in the hopes it will appeal to the consumer more than a competitor's product. Many times these manufacturer's improvements do not relate directly to the functionality of the product.
The look and feel of personal portable electronics devices is now a key product differentiator and one of the most significant reasons that consumers choose specific models. From a business standpoint, outstanding designs (form and appearance) may increase market share and margin.
Consumers are enamored with customizable features, e.g., colors, ring tones, shapes, on portable electronic devices. These features reflect personal style. Consumers select them for some of the same reasons that they select clothing styles, clothing colors, and fashion accessories. These two worlds have not merged because consumers have multiple sets of clothing and generally only one personal electronic device (perhaps of each type), and this device has a single defined color, texture, or shape. In short, consumers have a very limited ability to match colors and patterns of personal electronic devices to their clothing, their accessories, their car, or their mood. Plastic snap-on covers for devices such as cell phones and MP3 players can be purchased in pre-defined patterns and colors. These snap-on covers are quite popular, and yet they provide a limited customization capability.
There is clearly a need for a better solution: a need for a technology that will allow consumers to easily and conveniently change the color and pattern of their portable electronics device according to both their moods and wearable items without depleting power from their portable electronics device.
In many portable electronic devices, such as mobile communication devices, the main displays present information, including video and text, to a user. Electrowetting light valves, a low cost reflective display technology, have been suggested for a number of uses, including selective revealing a display and changing the color of the surface of a housing. This low cost reflective display technology comprising electrowetting light valves, may be used to produce shutters over a reflective surface. Typical electrowetting devices use a DC voltage to change the wetting properties between a solid and a liquid, thereby moving an oil droplet like a shutter in and out of view. The ‘open’ condition of the shutter is transparent (not black or white) so that the underlying colors are visible. These reflective displays are built above a reflective surface that reflects ambient light through the device to illuminate the oil or lack thereof.
Known methods of fabricating electrowetting devices include forming micro cell arrays with hydrophilic walls and hydrophobic bottom layers. Traditional methods coat the surface of a substrate with a hydrophobic layer. A hydrophilic grid is then formed on top of the hydrophobic layer to create the micro cell array. Normally, this approach is expensive and it is difficult to control the adhesion between the hydrophobic grid and the hydrophilic layer.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a method of fabricating an electrowetting module having a hydrophilic grid for revealing a functional element within the housing or for revealing another housing appearance. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.